Caps-Rangers in review

1) I think it was good that John Tortorella was a little testy after this one. He should be. His team played well enough to win, and a couple of very soft plays (by some soft players in a few instances) cost them what should have been a solid home win.

2) I think Brandon Dubinsky’s use of the term “ideal game” was intended, correctly, to mean that the Rangers executed their gameplan, stuck to their system, had some excellent forechecking shifts, played hard and mean and nasty and together … only to have it fall apart on a few disinterested plays. I think he meant that they played the way they wanted to play for the most part, and that they even were in control for long stretches against a superior team, and that they did a pretty good job on Alex Ovechkin and Mike Green and the other dangerous Caps.

3) Tortorella was annoyed at the officiating, and I don’t blame him, especially on the Fedotenko non-goal. Fedotenko was shoved toward the net by Karl Azner, and made a very strong effort to avoid colliding with goalie Michal Neuvirth. I don’t think it should have been disallowed. Most of the other penalties could have gone either way. Though I thought when Sauer came to Eminger’s aid, he should have gotten an instigator and Hendricks (or Hendrix) should have gotten a kneeing penalty.

4) It’s really uncomfortable interviewing Boogaard. I don’t know if he doesn’t like the media, or if he doesn’t like being interviewed, or if he thinks it’s fun to try to intimidate or what it is. But he stands there, way up in the atmosphere, with a half a smile and gives short answers. He seems like a decent enough guy, but it’s odd. Like when I asked him how close he came to not playing because of the flu, he glared and said, “You’ll have to ask John Tortorella and Glen Sather.” Huh?

5) Alex Frolov. WTB?

6) Said it many times before. Staal and Girardi are better apart than together. First shift last night: Breakaway. Second shift: Both on the same side of the net, man wide open at the post on the other side, Lundqvist amazing save. etc. etc.

7) Had a nice chat with Buffalo coaches and former Rangers James Patrick and Lindy Ruff before the game. They play the Devils tonight, with Ruff coaching his 1,000th game, then at MSG tomorrow.

8) Man, do the Rangers need Marian Gaborik. They need more than Gaborik, actually, but they really need Gaborik. They also need a point man on the power play.

you probably didn’t hear aaron ward’s explanation about his goal after the game.
basically intimated that the caps player frehley’ed himself at the sight of Boo
coming towards him and just let the puck go.

then again, based on the past the odds were in his favor that Boo would take the puck and not score but…

They would win this one with Gaborik and Drury in the line up. They would still lose to them in best of 7. But, even without the injured players they should win most of the games against equal or weaker opponents, providing they continue with the same effort.
And don’t fool yourself, folks, they miss Drury. If for nothing else, his presence would relieve AA, Callahan and Dubinsky from extended PK shifts, they will have, and need, more energy to maintain their style of play. He will also help on face off situation, which has been pathetic so far.

Gaborik, when he comes back, would immediately summon the best D-pair and line to play against him. Either way, it looks like we will surprisingly benefit from secondary scoring this year, we actually already have.

One thing I want to mention- AA isn’t where we would like him to be offensively yet, he may never get there. But I sense that he is already turning into premier shutdown center. He made OV invisible. Him and with the help of other forwards. OV has much more speed than AA, but he couldn’t use be cause of AA’s positioning.

MDZ needs to learn how to eat the puck instead of treating it like a hot potato.

Orr, of course it’s not fun to lose more of than win, but with this team they are going to lose probably as much as they win. The Blues are a better team right now, they have a solid D (even moreso when they get some of their injured guys back) and the Flyers are rolling on everybody right now. Still, last night they looked a lot more equal to the task than we’ve seen in recent years when they play the Caps. I don’t particularly like watching them lose either, especially when I’m in the paid attendance (toting my 1-3-0 record this year) but given the experience level of this team it helps to keep in mind that it’s not about this year for the Rangers and probably next year as well.

Not sure it was warranted, but I was expecting an instigator for Sauer too. Since he wears a visor, that would’ve kicked him out of the game, so I get the feeling the refs fudged some sort of compromise with the roughing penalties.

Good use of common sense or another example of arbitrary application of the rules?

LOL @ Dubi learning to fight from Underhill. 2 things with DZ last night. 1. Why’d he throw it back to Rozi under pressure? 2. Why pound the puck in the zone with 20 seconds left last night with no one in the zone?

LW3H- did you just mention the referees and common sense in one sentence.

I liked what Sauer did. A lot. Isn’t it interesting that more often than not those types of penalties are killed by the team? And, yes, I don’t mind Dubinsky fight at all. Win or lose. It charges him and his team up. But at this point, he needs to be careful whom he takes out for 5 min from the opposing team. Green going for 5min along with him was a good trade. By the way, unless Caps improve on their defense, I’m going to retract my prediction of them winning it this year. They have serious issues defending good forechecking and effective cycling.

LW3H- the NY food didn’t go that well, eh? Miss fish and chips? I know a great place in Park Slope. Anyway, maybe I’ll buy you a Seltzer tomorrow lol. Speaking of Seltzer. Carp, I’m yet to buy you one. Let me know if you’re still attending the game tomorrow. I’m there pretty early usually.

I don’t think Dublowsky and Green is a good trade. Green isn’t that great of a d-man. His offense is his big weapon. Dublowsky is more valuable to us than Green is to his team, in my opinion.

And I loved what Sauer did as well. He didn’t deserve the double minor. And since when is it a double minor anyway? So stupid. Glad to see some of these guys sticking to the teams words. It seems like the last few games NYR players have been getting cheap shots thrown at them without anybody stepping up and doing something aboot it.

I’d like to go to tomorrow’s game if Gaborik is back. Maybe get to witness a rare species, a home win. Probably won’t though as I think I’ll raise the ire of the ball and chain about going to too many games. I’ll let you know over iPhone4 if I do end up going.

The problem with the Caps defense was they were missing their leveling force: Tom Poti. :-)

Carp, I agree with number 2 for last night, but in other cases they’ve been too stubborn to adapt their game plan when it isn’t working. Things like, you really can’t shoot the puck through an opponents shins, no matter how many times you try. Either that or they need to get Angelina Jolie in there to teach them how to shoot like they did in “Wanted.”

See i’m not so sure that Frolov won’t benefit from Gaborik’s return. I’m willing to give him a few games once that happens to see if they can work well together as long as someone other than EC is between them. He definitely needs to sit once Drury comes back because he’s playing like he’s less than a spare part at the moment.

Wouldn’t mind seeing them try the first line they tried in the home opener or even sliding Stepan back between the Gab and Fro for a little while. Secondary scoring from guys like Dubinsky and Boyle aside, there isn’t much Gaborik is going to be able to do if he doesn’t have linemates worth anything

I have no problem with Dubinsky fighting. If you want him to be an Adam Graves type (I know, sacrilege) then he has to do that once in a while … he’s never going to be a high impact player on skill alone. He has to hit and be physical, and if he’s nasty and fights sometimes, all the better.

ilb, would love to meet up during warmups if possible. I am not 100 percent going though. Not yet.

Carp – “he’s never going to be a high impact player on skill alone. ” I dont understand that comment. You dont think he will ever consistently be a 100 point forward, given a better supporting cast? I think he will have a tremendous career.